Our web hosts were threatened with legal action after lawyers representing none other than Dov Zakheim himself claimed this article was “defamatory.” Due to an oversight the article was not fully removed so read it before Zakheim gets us shut down

Some say that Prince Michael of Albany has a more legitimate claim to the throne of England than the Windsors. Are they right? And why are the Windsors and the mainstream media delberately ignoring him?

AFP – March 22, 2012 #

A fringe candidate for next month’s French presidential election on Wednesday alleged that the Queen of England owes her fortune to drugs money laundered by “Jewish bankers in The City”.

Jacques Cheminade, an independent, is one of 10 candidates who has been cleared by France’s Constitutional Court to run in the April 22 first round of the battle to unseat incumbent President Nicolas Sarkozy.

It ought to be a tough list to get on – former prime minister Dominique de Villepin and several other leading figures failed to make the cut – but little known Cheminade was one of the first to gather 500 mayors’ signatures.

Few in France have any idea what Cheminade stands for, as he represents no political party and has a low media profile.

But, now that the campaign proper has begun, French broadcasting fairness laws require he be given as much exposure as any other candidate, such as Sarkozy or opinion poll frontrunner and Socialist champion Francois Hollande.

Thus, Cheminade appeared on LCP television Wednesday, in a debate sponsored by AFP and other French media. He was asked about his support for US extremist Lyndon Larouche, a notorious conspiracy theorist.

In particular, he was asked whether the Queen is a drugs baroness.

“No, not all her fortune,” he replied. “There are many other sources, but it’s a series of trafficking operations within which, yes, there were drugs.”

Cheminade linked this claim to allegations about the Rothschild banking family, and compared the economic crisis to “the start of the Nazi regime and the measures it gradually put in place, as in the United States today.”

Voting will not begin for four weeks, but opinion polls track Cheminade’s support at less than one percent, or within the margin of error.

Coutts fined 8.75 million pounds for money laundering failures

Sudip Kar-Gupta – Reuters March 26, 2012

Coutts, best known as banker to The Queen, was fined 8.75 million pounds for “significant and widespread” failings in its money laundering controls, its second penalty for financial trangressions in four months.

Financial watchdog said Coutts had dealt inadequately with a type of clientele known as “politically exposed persons” – people whose prominent position in public life might have made them vulnerable to corruption.

“Coutts’ failings were significant, widespread and unacceptable,” Tracey McDermott, acting director of enforcement and financial crime at the Financial Services Authority (FSA), said in a statement on Monday.

“Its conduct fell well below the standards we expect and the size of the financial penalty demonstrates how seriously we view its failures.”

The FSA had previously fined Coutts, owned by Royal Bank of Scotland, 6.3 million pounds in November for failings related to the sale of a fund product during the run-up to the 2008 financial crisis.

The latest fine comes after the FSA visited Coutts in October 2010 as part of a review into banks’ management of high-risk money-laundering situations.

The FSA found Coutts did not apply robust controls when starting relationships with high-risk customers and did not consistently apply an appropriate level of monitoring.

It gave no further details and did not indicate if any particular customers were a cause for concern.

CLIENT LIST

Coutts, which was founded by Thomas Coutts in the 18th century, is one of Britain’s best-known private banks and boasts a client list which has included sports people and pop stars as well as the British monarch.

The FSA said Coutts had started improving its anti money-laundering systems and had agreed to settle at an early stage with the regulator over the fine. If it had not done so, Coutts would have been fined 12.5 million pounds.

Richard Yoxon, managing director at Brand Finance – a consultancy which assesses the value of various corporate brands – said Coutts’ clientele would likely be disappointed by the latest fine, but added that steps taken by Coutts to improve its systems could help reassure concerned customers.

“No doubt the bank’s high profile, wealthy patrons will be concerned and disappointed by news of today’s FSA fine for failure to implement adequate money laundering controls,” said Yoxon.

“Certainly this news will prompt current and potential customers to reassess their relationship with the bank, but only time will tell if the Coutts brand will suffer any lasting damage. Coutts’ response to the fine will determine the longer term impact on brand,” he added.

“The bank’s statement that they remain committed to preventing any future failings may be enough to provide concerned customers with assurance than the bank can still be trusted with their financial affairs.”

Coutts last week sold its Latin American, Caribbean and African private banking arms to Royal Bank of Canada as part of its strategy to focus more on its key markets such as the UK, Switzerland, Russia, the Middle East and Asia.

One response to “Queen attacked over ‘drug money fortune’”

[...] be an excuse for French media to roll out some b-roll and stock images of the Queen of England. Time to pull out your stock photos of the Queen. Or is it the Germanic False Queen of England?. Let Iran’s Press TV figure it [...]